[701] It Seems Li Zhenlong Can't Win

Boom! Like a struck billiard ball, Li Zhenlong instantly bent double into the shape of a cooked prawn, hurtling backward at extreme speed. In the Zhen Realm, Yu Xian and the Death Emperor, who were spectating the drama, were both stunned by this turn of events. This was the first time they had ever seen Li Zhenlong suffer a setback. Moreover, the Mechanical Dragon Knight's attack just now had truly been fast, vicious, and precise enough. In fact, the Mechanical Dragon Knight was still astride the giant dragon's back. The reason it could strike Li Zhenlong thousands of meters away was that the lance in its hand could extend and contract. Furthermore, its attack seemed to carry the effect of reversing causality, striking the target first before the attack was even launched. Over 4,230,415,231,240,400 meters away, Li Zhenlong slammed into a massive continent. The continent instantly dissolved into energy and exploded outward. Snapping back to his senses, he promptly activated his abilities, halting himself in an instant. Looking down, a huge gaping hole had appeared in his abdomen. The inner edges of the wound twisted in a spiral—if there were a screw large enough, one could literally drive it right in. He could scarcely remember the last time he had been wounded so severely. Yet the worse it was, the more thrilled he became. As expected, this enemy was truly challenging. A martial artist ought to constantly challenge the strong, not bully the weak. If one spent all their time dealing with noobs, they would end up becoming a noob themselves. Only through life-and-death battles against sufficiently powerful adversaries could one break through their limits, becoming stronger, greater, and harder. "Everlasting Spring Rejuvenation Art, heal!" Li Zhenlong immediately circulated his internal art, combining it with the Rule of Life to swiftly heal himself. Right then, however, a sense of danger seized him. He exerted force through his feet, retreating with immense speed. Yet the attack arrived in an utterly bizarre manner—in an instant, another large hole appeared right above his wound. "A lance?" Li Zhenlong looked down at the lance piercing straight through him, thoroughly bewildered. He clearly hadn't seen any attack incoming, so how on earth had he been hit? His gaze hardened. Gripping the still-spinning lance with both hands, his palms immediately took on an inky, dusky sheen. This was the Iron Sand Palm, the most common type of hard conditioning. Yet under his martial realm as a Mighty One, even the Iron Sand Palm possessed formidable defensive power. All at once, the spinning lance was demoted from cleaving flesh and shattering bone to a pipsqueak that could do no more than scrape a fingernail. As long as that Mechanical Dragon Knight dared to retract the lance, he would follow the lance right back and deliver a brutal blow to the knight. Yet the Mechanical Dragon Knight seemed to foresee all of this. It had no intention whatsoever of retracting the lance. Instead, the mechanical dragon beneath its feet opened its maw, unleashing a plasma dragon-breath light cannon along the line of the knight's lance. The moment the plasma dragon-breath light cannon overlapped with the lance, it began to whirl violently, transforming into an even more destructive spiraling plasma dragon-breath light cannon. The Mechanical Dragon Knight's Rule of Causality melded into it as well, causing the light cannon's velocity to surge abruptly. In that split second, Li Zhenlong truly wanted to curse its ancestors. *This is cheating! This is such blatant cheating! How is anyone supposed to fight this?!* He had no choice but to let go and retreat hastily, veering to the left as he fell back to evade the blast. Under the cover of the light cannon, the lance finally retracted, while the cannon blast struck a cluster of energy farther away, blowing it apart into nothingness. Before Li Zhenlong could even catch his breath, the Mechanical Dragon Knight's lance struck once more... Within the Zhen Realm. Yu Xian furrowed his brows and complained to the Death Emperor beside him, "Why do I feel like Li Zhenlong can't even beat this Mechanical Dragon Knight, let alone Margot Moxi?" "Hard to say for now. Don't forget, Li Zhenlong hasn't used his Martial Dao World yet," the Death Emperor said with a complicated tone, watching Li Zhenlong take another hit from the lance on the screen. Although watching Li Zhenlong get battered felt rather gratifying from a former victim's perspective, he also felt conflicted. If even Li Zhenlong was being beaten so badly that he was howling, wouldn't he himself be obliterated by the Mechanical Dragon Knight in mere seconds? "The Rule of Causality seems pretty overpowered," Yu Xian muttered to himself, stroking his chin. The Zhen Realm also had classes related to the Rule of Causality. He decided that once he got around to it, he would equip one for himself. That way, he could stay one step ahead and happily land the first punch every time. At this point, Li Zhenlong outside could bear it no longer. With a thunderous roar of "Martial Dao World!", everything in the vicinity slid toward him in the next instant, and the mechanical dragon and Mechanical Dragon Knight were naturally no exception. Yet neither the mechanical dragon nor the Mechanical Dragon Knight offered much resistance, clearly unafraid of Li Zhenlong's move. "Could it be that the Rule of Causality already predicted for the Mechanical Dragon Knight that there was no danger?" Yu Xian mumbled in a low voice upon seeing this. The Death Emperor explained, "When Li Zhenlong activates his ability, one's thought process is actually already affected. There's a sensation of 'why dodge?' because one feels 'unafraid.' So at that moment, one actually loses the conscious urge to evade danger." "There's even an effect like that?" Yu Xian said in surprise. Next, both Li Zhenlong and the mechanical dragon appeared upon a colossal arena platform. The injuries on Li Zhenlong's body slowly closed up, and the long staff reappeared in his grip. "Don't think getting a slight upper hand gives you license to get carried away. Round two, begin!" Li Zhenlong said seriously, fixing his gaze on the Mechanical Dragon Knight. He tugged at the staff with both hands, splitting it into nunchaku. Then, the connecting chain snapped, and the sticks on both sides shifted shape simultaneously: the one in his left hand became a shield, while the one in his right turned into a saber. The Mechanical Dragon Knight's lance was exceedingly dangerous, so he decided to employ sword and shield against it. With a shield, he was confident he could block the knight's lance. "After all this fuss, it turns out to be nothing more than petty parlor tricks. Beneath the glory of Her Majesty the Empress, die!" The Mechanical Dragon Knight observed for a moment before turning toward Li Zhenlong. A mechanical voice rang out. As it spoke, it raised the lance in its hand, passing judgment on Li Zhenlong's fate. The lance whirled into rapid motion, and a surge of majestic energy gathered above the tip along the spinning weapon. Eternal Machine Rule: Mechanical Energy Sphere! In the next second, the energy sphere expanded at breakneck speed, swelling from one meter in diameter straight to 9,460,730,472,580,800 meters. Except for an infinitesimally tiny concave notch where the Mechanical Dragon Knight and mechanical dragon stood, the energy sphere completely crammed and overwhelmed the entire arena. Before Li Zhenlong could even react, his body was crushed under the immense sphere of energy. The energy sphere continued to spin at high speed. Under the immense force, the shield in his hand flew right out of his grasp, and he was subsequently pinned against the floor by the energy sphere, ground against the surface repeatedly. In truth, the Mechanical Dragon Knight's cognition had indeed been influenced. However, it had already fallen under Margot Moxi's mind control beforehand. Consequently, governed by binary logic, it became all the more fanatically loyal to Margot Moxi. Under normal circumstances, a Mighty One would never expend all their energy in battle; they would always reserve a portion for escaping. After all, if a Mighty One decided to flee, they were exceedingly difficult to kill. Yet within the Martial Dao World, the Mechanical Dragon Knight held nothing back. Not only did it exhaust its own power, it even siphoned away every scrap of its mount's energy. This energy sphere was the culmination of every ounce of energy possessed by both the Mechanical Dragon Knight and the mechanical dragon!